Priorities

This bit from yesterday’s N&O story about the NC Legislature pretty much says it all:

But one of the juiciest pieces of the agreement drew little scrutiny or debate: a tax break for owners of businesses that will cost $336 million a year, one of the largest tax cuts in a decade.

Tillis and Berger, both Republicans, heralded the tax break as a “$50,000 exemption for small businesses – the backbone of North Carolina’s struggling economy.” But the exemption is not just for small businesses. There is no cap on the size of the business that can claim the exemption.

So the break will go to roughly 460,000 business owners of all sorts, including equity partners in law firms, doctors and dentists with thriving practices, even lobbyists who patrol the legislature. It also includes some state lawmakers who are business owners.

Annual revenue from that $336 million tax break would roughly equal the salaries and benefits of the 6,400 employees who lost their jobs last year to help balance the $20 billion state budget. Roughly 900 of those employees are teachers who were let go as the statewide school population increased by approximately 10,750 students.  [emphasis mine]

Probably could not ask for a clearer display of Republican priorities in action.  Who needs education when a bunch of rich lawyers and doctors (as the article points out) needed tax breaks?!

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